Never Give In
by Kirari Sailor Venus
Summary: Meru, a cool and collected girl is tasked with the greatest responsibility she can imagine. And even alone, she gladly accepts it no matter the costs.


**There will only be one chapter to this story. I was only playing with an idea and have another requested story I'd like to tend to. I don't own anything Sailor Moon related, Meru is my own character. **

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**It was a dark and stormy night. The rain was falling in tons and tons. There was no even slight letting up of it since noon. Now it was getting late and Meru still hadn't gotten home yet. Her blond locks of silky hair laid on her shoulders wet from the heavy rain and her amber eyes were darting all over the place as she walked briskly from building to building trying to stay as dry as possible. Her creamy pale skin made her look like a ghost navigating the heavy storm. Going against the better of her instincts she decided to take a right down the alley beside her in an effort to get home as quickly as possible. It wasn't the safest of cities but she just wanted to make it home at this point. With one hand on the building beside her she made her way down the alleyway quickly, trying to get out of here as fast as possbile. She was almost half way out of the alley when she heard a voice coming from the in front of her in the t-intersection of alleys she was passing.

"Who do we have here?" A man who sounded rather dastardly uttered as he stepped out of the shadows behind a dumper in front of her.

"Looks like a cute little girl." Another man who came out from her left said equally as maliciously.

Meru slowly backed up, until she backed her way into another guy who'd come up behind her apparently. He grabbed her arms rather vulgarly and pulled them back at a diagonal so that she couldn't move. He said, "Looks like it's our lucky day."

Meru looked at each of them with a pained and almost angry expression. She didn't want to have to deal with them right now, she really didn't. Regardless, they enclosed on her fairly menacingly and she wasn't about to be someone's toy.

"I'm not going to be taken advantage of, sorry." Meru said almost under her breath but loudly enough to be heard. Quickly she moved her arms further to the sides and spun around 180 degress so they were crossed in front of her. Pulling tighter, the man realized he was completely trapped at this point. She then kneed straight up into his chest and, extending her foot from there, sent him flying back. From there she spun around, in time to duck to the left and trip one guy over her ankle and then dive to the right under the other man's arm as he flew at her and elbow him in the back. Spinning around on her heel, she faced the pile of three goons as they lay on top of one another. There was something unusual about them, though. A dark energy was coming off of their bodies; them slowly coming to their feet.

"So they must be..." Meru thought to herself as she observed them. The men arose and began emanating powerful dark auras before transforming into strange creautes. Well, strange to any human, that is. Meru was more than used to this.

Taking up her stance, she called out, "Venus Star Power!" And in a bright flash of golden light, Meru transformed herself into the soldier of the planet Venus, a warrior in the name of love and beauty. Preparing an offensive position, the three charger at her again with their own sharp claws ready. Meru reared her arm back before swinging it around and shouting "Venus Love Me Chain!" a long chain of connected golden hearts extending towards them and wrapping the Youma up. With a powerful swing, the creatures were launched into the sky

"Crescent Beam!"

Each of the shots from Meru's finger pierced a differeny Youma and they exploded like fireworks. Venus stared at the sky for a few more seconds as small sparks fell from the explosion. It then occured to her that it stopped raining as the fight had began. She gripped the jewel at the center of her bow for a few seconds, reverting to normal, and then continued to run home as if nothing had happened. Or perhaps it had just been another day in the life type of situation. Arriving at her home, she went up the stairs in back that lead directly into her room and collapsed on her soft and warm bed. Looking out the window beside the door she'd come in through, the sky was dark and yet still visibly cloudy. It was almost like looking into a mirror. She turned and reached around for the light switch, flipping it and basking in the soft light of the lamp on her ceiling. She then heard footsteps outside of her other door that lead into her home. She lied back on the bed and reached for a book on her nightstand that had a bookmark in it. Pulling it out, she opened to the page and began to read through it stoicly as her father opened her door.

"Meru, honey? Oh, good. I wasn't sure if you were home. Were you reading this whole time?"

She didn't bat an eye when she said "Of course I was." He smiled before quietly leaving the room. She didn't know how to deal with her parents and vice versa. Her only escape was the life that they didn't know about. What it was she did for the sake of everyone she cared about. Although, when she thought about it, who exactly did she care about? Why did she fight so hard? Perhaps it was just for her own sake. For a purpose... Or maybe even to become stronger.

That night while she attempted to sleep, she was awoken by the familair pulsing of her bracelet. A soft orange glow that was all too familiar. She opened her cereulean eyes gently and stared at the vortex of orange energy emanating from that bracelet of hers that sat around her wrist. It was the charm given to her by her companion, Artemis, which allowed her to become Sailor Venus. This charm was her life and the one key out of the monotony of every single day. Even though it was the only thing standing between her and a good night's sleep, she'd follow the path evil was leaving behind gladly. Swinging her legs over the side of the increasingly more inviting bed, she slipped on her leather boots and slide out the door, rushing down the stairs. Whatever the trouble was, she'd make sure nobody got hurt.

With Artemis by her side, Meru approached the town sqaure. It was 1 o'clock and there were still large amounts of people all over the place. Normally they'd be shopping or eating or laughing, but this time it was different. There was a Youma in the center of town that looked much more different than the usual ones. In the sense that it had a strangely strong looking suit of armor protecting it and a rapier. The people were all scattering as it would absorb the life energy out of different civillians. Meru locked eyes with Artemis and nodded at him, knowing it was time to take up her duty. She waited until nobody was looking and ducked behind a nearby corner before activating her powers.

"Venus Star Power!"

Now in the visage of Sailor Venus, she ran into the center of the action and stood opposite of the Youma. This one seemed much smarter than the others as instead of charging her it simply took up a defensive stance and awaited her move. She ran at the enemy and it prepared to impale her on its rapier. Just as they were about to make contact, the Youma thrusted and venus moved to the side, kicking upwards to knock the rapier into the sky and charging her elbow with Venus power, bringing it around to hit the creature in the face. It recoiled, but didn't go flying as it should have. She made a wide backflip to make some distance as her enemy recovered and prepared for more contact. The rapier then landed dead in the middle of them. Venus expected the monster to go for the weapon, in which she'd terminate him, but instead he extended his hand and unleashed a red blast of power, she barrel rolled to dodge the attack as it caused the ground where she had been to explode. Some debris hit her leaving dirt and dust on her face and uniform. She turned her attention to the Youma and gained a fierce look on her face. Her fists clenched and she stood to her feet, raising a hand in the air and extending only her index finger.

"Crescent Beam..." She then pointed it 45 degrees towards her enemy, "Shower!" Releasing several beams of light, they conjoined above the Youma before raining down onto it. It somehow withstood the attack, only blocking its face with its arms.

_How did it survive the Crescent Beam Shower? Beryl's really stepped up her forces. I guess I have no choice._

She had one more tactic. Running at the creature, it charged her as well. She jumped and flipped over it, landing behind it and spun around quickly. Crossing her hands over her chest, she clenched them into fisted before thrusting them forward and forming a heart. Meru's whole body glowed bright gold as a golden heart appeared in front of her hands. She extended one hand upward and then thrusted it forward, emmitting a large and powerful cannon-like blast of Venus energy. The youma flailed before bursting into a dust cloud and releasing all its stolen energy back into the hosts lying on the ground. Meru shuddered lightly before collapsing and rubbing her temple with her right hand. It took her a few moments to collect herself and stand up as she began walking out of the town square and towards home. Artemis ran up beside her and looked as if he wanted to ask her something. Before he could, however, a small girl that must've been hiding ran up to her.

"Hey, Miss, that was really cool! Thanks for saving us!"

Meru nodded stoicly before gaining a look of surprise, she touched a finger to the girl's forehead and witnessed a crescent moon appear on it lightly before fading away. Meru kneeled beside her and smiled at her, saying, "Little girl, never lose sight of your dreams. I know you'll go on to do great things." This seemed to make the girl's day as Meru continued to walk off out of the town square. Artemis caught up to her, not noting the promise in the young girl's life, but more worried about Meru.

"Venus, why did you do that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"The Venus Beam Cannon costs a fragment of the user's memory. You know that."

She stopped and stared for a moment, perhaps mulling it over.

"I will never be defeated by something that causes so much pain and sadness, even if it costs me everything."

She continued walking onwards, slowly fading in the darkness of night as it absorbed her back into its very core.


End file.
